With the Music Of Cream 50th Anniversary tour ending this week, the trio of guys that make up this homage to the original band formed in 1966, are feeling the rigors of the road. “Please forgive me, I’m a little tired,” singer/guitar player Will Johns apologized with a yawn when I spoke to him last week while the band was in Tallahassee, Florida, for a show. “It’s been pretty exhausting. Six shows in a row.” But when music is in your DNA, a little exhaustion doesn’t stop the artist completely … but the break will do them good after Saturday night’s performance in San Antonio, Texas.
Cream was a big deal in the late 1960’s. Their mixture of blues and psychedelic rock propelled the trio – Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker – to a fame that never really receded, not even when they called it quits in 1968, without many of their fans ever seeing them in concert. But Malcolm Bruce (son of Jack), Kofi Baker (son of Ginger) and Will Johns (son of producer Andy Johns) have brought the music back to a live setting for a Cream anniversary tour that has been garnering rave reviews the world over since late 2017.
For starters, the band did not go the cover band route, where the music is note-for-note of the original material. Allowing themselves the freedom to expand and enhance, they are breathing fresh air into iconic songs that even the original Cream didn’t play exactly the same on any given night. “We’re not going out and wearing the clothes and playing it note for note and all that kind of stuff. Cream’s music lends itself to improvisation and that’s what the original band did,” bass player Malcolm Bruce told me during rehearsals last September. “So we’re not copying it exactly. We’re sort of making it something new but at the same time we’re honoring it in the best way possible.”
“The audiences seemed to appreciate, and enjoy, that we were not just copying and actually putting our own slant on things,” reiterated Johns, who handles most of the vocals along with playing guitar. All three men have musical careers of their own so this must have been something really special for them to put their own projects on hold for a little while. For Johns, he has been working on a follow-up to his 2016 Something Old, Something New album.
Johns is the offspring of legendary producer Andy Johns who worked with everyone from Free to Cinderella to Van Halen (and engineered albums by the likes of Zeppelin, the Stones and Rod Stewart) and model Paula Boyd. His connection to Clapton came via Clapton’s ex-wife Patti Boyd, sister of Johns’ mother. Therefore Johns’ uncles includes: Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and the late George Harrison. With all that music seemingly right under his nose, you’d think he was encircled by rock superstars from birth. But that wasn’t necessarily the case. However, apples don’t fall far from their trees and Johns was ultimately seduced by music, began playing in bands, and recorded his first album, Count On Me, in 2009. His second record, Hooks & Lines in 2012, contained the fantastic guitar-soaked single, “Never Rains.”
I had a quick chat with Johns about the tour, the music of Cream, guitars and what’s coming up for him and the band.
This tour is starting to wind down. Is this just a break with more dates to come or is this actually the end?
There’s some more dates to come. We’re planning on coming out in the fall and I believe the next tour will be up and down the West Coast of the United States.
Being on a tour like this, have you gained any new insight on the original music and musicians?
No, not really. We’re looking forward, not looking back.
When I talked to Malcolm last year, you guys were in rehearsals, and I had asked him how faithful you were going to try and stay to the songs. So a year down the road, how much did the songs change in your hands?
Oh, quite a lot. We take the bones and we put some new fresh meat on it. I just sort of bring my sense and sensibility to the mix and being a blues player, it’s just all about heart for me. I’m looking for that one note which is going to hit you right in your heart and hopefully make the hairs on your arm stand up.
From talking with fans on this tour, what have you found they are most curious about?
Well, that’s a good question. I guess the most common question, which is a hard one to answer, is “What was it like growing up with so and so as a father or an uncle?” And that’s a hard one to answer because, well, I don’t have anything to really compare it to. Kofi tells the story about how in his house every room was a different color and there was all gold discs on the wall. And when he’d go to other people’s houses, he’d say, “Why are all your walls white?” and “Where are all the gold discs?” I guess to him that was normal, you know.
But yeah, I don’t know what normal is. My dad was a record producer and I was kind of born into a studio situation but then, you know, my mom left my dad and took me away from, I guess we were in LA, and took me back to England. So I didn’t really grow up with my dad. I grew up with a single mom who was struggling, both financially and dependencies that she was struggling with, so I didn’t have a life of luxury or exactly get to reap the benefits of having all of these rich and famous people around me.
So what made you want to pick up a guitar?
Well, I was always a little bit of a show off (laughs). I was in the school play and stuff like that and I guess I started fooling around with the guitar when I was about fourteen. The first guitar I ever got was just like a no name brand electric that somebody gave me. I think it had three strings on it and I just got the screwdriver out and wanted to see how it worked and took it all apart. But I was too young and didn’t know enough to know how to put it all back together (laughs). Then my dad gave me my first proper guitar. I guess I was about fifteen and that was a Fender Strat and I learned on that by ear, playing along to my favorite music.
And what music was that?
At that time I think my dad gave me one of the first CD Walkmans and I had three CDs. I had Beastie Boys Licensed To Ill, I had Bryan Adams, I guess it must have been the Reckless album, and I had Huey Lewis & The News. So when I was fifteen, I was listening to Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis and the Beastie Boys (laughs).
Where in the world did blues come in?
I guess that was just always in there. I guess as a guitarist, everybody learns to play “Sunshine Of Your Love,” so I must have been playing that as well and probably some Jimi Hendrix. Even though I was listening to Huey Lewis and Bryan Adams, I don’t think I was trying to learn so much how to play like that. It was just more putting on the music and then playing along, more just trying to discover what I was trying to do on guitar rather than those being my final ones, you know. Now, it’s all about BB King for me. If it isn’t BB King, I don’t care. I start my day every day I put BB on. I go in the shower and I sing along and that’s how I start my day.
Did you feel more comfortable messing with the blues covers on this tour since they weren’t Cream songs to begin with?
Oh yeah, definitely. You know I played a lot of those songs most of my life cause they are great songs, especially on guitar. But definitely the blues is where I’m coming from so those more bluesy songs are definitely easier for me because it’s just what I do naturally.
Was there a song that you guys had wanted or thought about playing but you could never get it to feel right to you?
Yeah, we did “I Feel Free” and we did it in rehearsal and we got it sounding good but there was just something about it that when you put it up next to the other songs and the way we played the other songs, it just wasn’t as good, as vibey. Cream never played “I Feel Free” live anyway. It was more a studio recording song. So that was definitely one that we tried and decided we wouldn’t be playing that one live.
I had asked Malcolm about “Dance The Night Away” but I don’t think you ever did that
No and you know what, coincidentally, we were talking about that last night after the show, about what a great song that is and what fun it would be to do that. I would think that in the future we’d be looking at some more of those songs that managed to slip through the net.
But you have been doing “Deserted Cities Of The Heart.” So what made that one special to be in the setlist?
Me (laughs). I play that one and I love that song, particularly with the vocals. I’m able to sing that one good for whatever reason. Malcolm put on a concert for his dad, An Evening With Jack, and he invited me to play that one so I played that one at that concert. It’s just an amazing song and has been fun to sing.
Was that the concert you got to play with Bill Wyman?
Not Bill Wyman but I got to play with Mick Taylor from the Rolling Stones. I was playing with Mick and Dennis Chambers and quite a number of other people as well who were ridiculously famous (laughs).
When you first started learning to play guitar, what was the hardest thing for you to get the hang of?
I guess the vibrato and putting a little piece of yourself into the note. That’s the thing, that’s how you make it personal, that’s how you put your stamp on what it is you’re doing.
In terms of the guitar parts, which Cream song was maybe a little more complicated than it sounds?
“NSU.” It’s a lot of strange chords that you wouldn’t normally play and because of the way the song is structured, it makes it quite complicated. It’s doing the same thing but different chords. Then when I was cross-referencing the song and trying to learn how the structure went, there would be like different versions of it and sometimes the original Cream would play it one way and then sometimes they’d play it another way and the structure was very slightly different. So for me personally, while I was still trying to get my head around that one, whichever one I would choose would always seem to be the wrong one (laughs). So for a time, that one was annoying me particularly because it was just kind of complicated like that. I’m happy to say now that I’ve got my head around it and been able to put it to bed, as it were.
In regards to your guitar setup, did you just use what you normally play or did you make any changes to specifically pick up a vibe off these songs since they are from a different era?
No, not really, to be honest. I go for quite a natural tone anyway, which is sort of a British blues tone. So I try not to mess with it too much. I used a couple of pedals outside of what would be considered normal. I have a great pedal company called Mad Professor, who sponsor me, and they also make amps as well. So it made sense for me to use their brand new amp that they’ve come out with, the Old School RT, I think that’s what it’s called. But they’ve built that amp with British blues and with all of that classic sound and that was part of the design of the amp.
Then I’ve always used a Music Man Eddie Van Halen guitar, which my dad gave me when he was producing Van Halen in the early nineties. And that guitar, it’s kind of a heavy rock guitar but I play blues on it. So once again, not a straight-forward and not as usual as one would think, you know, but with these tools I find that I can do exactly what it is that I need to achieve. And the Mad Professor stuff is just such high quality that it really works for me.
Are you going to be putting out some new music?
Yes, I’m working on my next album at the moment. I’ve got a nice short list of songs and I’m writing some new ones and I’m kind of excited about that and looking forward. I’m actually going to take my time with this album and not give myself any deadlines. I’m just going to make it the best one I’ve ever made.
Writing your own songs, does that come as natural to you as guitar or do you have to kind of coax that out a little more?
Depends on the song. Sometimes the song just comes out on it’s own and comes out in one go and then sometimes a song will take a couple of years before it comes out and forms. It just gets down to the individual song.
Well let us know when your next record comes out
Yes and I’ve got a beautiful website, www.willjohns.com and from there you might even find my little fishing show that I do as well, which is called “Hooked Up In A Heartbeat.” It’s supposed to be pure fishing but I tend to get a little crazy (laughs).
Top Portrait by David Geraghty
